Pakistan Arrests Three Men In Taliban Shooting Of 15-Year-Old Girl

“Police said the suspects, aged between 17 and 22, had claimed the person who organized the attack Tuesday — in which two other young girls were shot and injured — was a man called Attaullah.”

“‘During raids in Swat on Thursday night, we captured three culprits involved in attack on Malala,’ Swat police chief Gul Afzal Afridi told NBC News by phone. ‘During initial interrogation, they revealed that Attaullah was mastermind of the attack and he is still at large,’ he added.”

They report she is in “satisfactory” condition. “Yousafzai was airlifted from a hospital in the northwestern city of Peshawar to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, the country’s top military hospital in Rawalpindi,” VoA reports. “Doctors have said Yousafzai has a 70 percent chance of surviving.”

As we’ve told you, Malala was targeted by the Pakistani Taliban for advocating for the education of women, which the group has banned in the Swat Valley.

The BBC reports that the country has called for a day of prayer today. The BBC adds:

“On Friday, school children dedicated prayers to her recovery in morning assemblies and special prayers will also be offered after weekly prayers at mosques across the country.

“Schools in the Swat Valley closed on Wednesday – the day after the shooting – in protest at the attack. Protests and rallies have also been held in Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, Multan as well as in Malala’s hometown of Mingora.”